The Unchanging and Unchangeable Nature - Literature review Example

The Element of Time in Literary Works Despite its measured hours and minutes, months and years, time remains primarily a subjective experience for many humans. It flies when we’re having fun, it slows to a crawl when we’re anticipating something and it seems to stop when something disastrous happens. This seemingly subjective nature of time has been observed in many cultures around the world and, as such, is often used as a central theme of many literary works. For many authors of any genre, the interplay of time is a fascinating subject, particularly as it is struggled against or embraced, passes or is made to stop in some fashion. It can be longed for, as in wishing time would turn backward, or hoped against, as in looking to the future and sometimes even personified and pitted against itself as past struggles with future or present struggles with the stopped time of death. To explore how time is treated within literature, which would seem to have no time of its own, William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” will be compared with Emily Dickenson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death” and William Shakespeare’s “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”. Time plays a very palpable role in William Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily.” Almost strong enough to be considered a character of its own, Time marches through the story in a disjointed fashion, always leaving its mark wherever it touches. Through this treatment, not only do readers get a glimpse of the old south of the 1800s, but they are given an idea of the story’s early 1900s present through the voice of the narrator(s). However, even in dealing with aspects of the past, Faulkner shows that time can and will affect changes however much they might be shunned or ignored by those trapped within its domain. Throughout “A Rose for Emily,” readers experience the rigidity of the past, the flexible nature of the present and the tug-of-war battle constantly fought between them. By utilizing several of the older characters in the story as symbols, Faulkner demonstrates the unchanging and unchangeable nature of the past through the actions of these characters. Standing out as the prime example for his case is Miss Emily Grierson herself, as inflexible and unchanging as possible. Throughout the story, Miss Emily is characterized as an unchanging object through the use of such imagery as “her upright torso motionless as that of an idol” (437) as she is framed in a lit window, “We had long thought of them as a tableau; Miss Emily a slender silhouette in the background” (437) when discussing the image the town had of Emily and her father, and the occasional glimpse of her “in one of the downstairs windows … like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or not looking at us, we could never tell which” (442). Even the one time period in which Miss Emily was seen to be most alive, just following her father’s death and while she was courting Homer Barron, she remains described in terms of rigid, unchanging material — “her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows — sort of tragic and serene” (438). Making the picture complete, the inanimate objects associated with Miss Emily were also seen to be unchanging with the passing of years. The house is a “big, squarish frame house that had once been white” that lifts “its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps — an eyesore among eyesores” (433). Correspondence sent addressed from Miss Emily are described as “a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink” (434) indicating neither the paper nor the ink had changed nor yet retained its ability to communicate under the terms of the present. Even in her activities, Miss Emily proves to be outdated, utilizing her one skill, the ability to paint china, to earn some extra money for a few years. “She fitted up a studio in one of the downstairs rooms, where the daughters and granddaughters of Colonel Sartoris’ contemporaries were sent to her … Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, and the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her” (441). Miss Emily is not the only character to symbolize the unchanging nature of the past, though. In Tobe, Miss Emily’s servant, the reader finds a character with no voice and no change in pattern. “Daily, monthly, yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped, going in and out with the market basket” (442) indicates that the only change observed in this character was the inevitable aging that no one can avoid. Although the newer generation is insistent about addressing the issue of the odor coming from Miss Emily’s home, the older generation is more concerned about propriety when addressing a woman of gentle birth. “’Dammit sir,’ Judge Stevens said, ‘will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?’” (436). That the older generation held sway in this decision is shown by the composition of the Board of Aldermen “three greybeards and one younger man” and in the action taken “four men crossed Miss Emily’s lawn and slunk about the house like burglers, sniffing along the base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings … They broke open the cellar door and sprinkled lime there, and in all the outbuildings” (436). Although quite flat and undeveloped, the character of Homer Barron helps to symbolize the present point in time as it is juxtaposed against the unchanging past. To begin with, Homer Barron is a Yankee, a character that is immediately recognized by those in the south as bringing about change and new ideas. He is described as a “big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face” (438). His tendency to always be where laughter was heard, to be in the “center of the group” and to have it “known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks’ Club” further indicate Homer Barron is intended to represent the present (440). It is through her association with Homer Barron that Miss Emily comes closest to entering the present world as she is seen with him “on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable,” (438). She appears more in public as “we learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler’s and ordered a man’s toilet set in silver. … Two days later we learned that she had bought a complete outfit of men’s clothing, including a nightshirt and we said, ‘They are married’” (440). However, Homer Barron is also “not a marrying man” (440) and his inability to remain unchanged proved to be his downfall. This battle between the past and the present can be seen throughout the story, but no where more evident than in the relationship between Homer Barron and Miss Emily. The arrival of Miss Emily’s cousins in town precipitates a withdrawal from Homer Barron in response. “So we were not surprised when Homer Barron … was gone. We were a little disappointed that there was not a public blowing-off, but we believed that he had gone on to prepare for Miss Emily’s coming, or to give her a chance to get rid of the cousins” (440-41). That Homer remained as changeable as the present is evident in that he returned “within three days” as a “neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening” (441). However, Miss Emily was not accustomed to change and could not overcome the training of her unchanging past. As the narrators tell it, “that was the last we saw of Homer Barron” (441). As the story unfolds, the reader learns that Miss Emily brought Homer Barron into her world in the only way she knew how. When the men of the town broke through the door of the upstairs bedroom following Miss Emily’s death, they describe a grisly scene. “The body had apparently once lain in the attitude of an embrace, … what was left of him, rotted beneath what was left of the nightshirt, had become inextricable from the bed in which he lay; and upon him and upon the pillow beside him lay that even coating of the patient and biding dust” (443). Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I Could Not Stop for Death” addresses time in a similar fashion, juxtaposing the passage of time against the stopping of time as she relates the concept of a woman who has died during the course of her regular duties. With its simple presentation and gentle rhyme, the poem is surprisingly touching. The poem’s great emotional effect is largely due to Dickinson’s masterful use of personification, symbolism and imagery. The poem begins with the assumption that Death is an individual as the speaker of the poem tells us “He kindly stopped for me” (2). The genteel way in which this is expressed gives the impression that this Death is not someone to be feared but is instead something along the lines of a suitor. He picks her up in a carriage complete with a chaperone in the form of Immortality and takes her on a gentle ride, “he knew no haste” (5). He is so charming and ‘civil’ that she voluntarily puts away her labor and leisure in order to go with him. In giving Death form and figure in this way, she has personified the idea of Death into a more gentle, more graceful, more loving figure than it is typically portrayed as being. In mentioning that Death stopped for her, she is also indicating the idea that time has stopped for her, she is no longer a part of the present. Dickinson also employs a great deal of symbolism within this poem that further outlines how time is different for her now that she’s dead as compared to those around her. The children seen playing in the schoolyard that is passed upon this journey symbolize the continuation of life and the passing of time even in the face of death, the stopping of time. The “children strove” (9), indicating that they were not finished with their toil and play as the speaker now is, thus presenting a strong contrast between the activity of life and the passive observation of death as the speaker passes silently by. This idea of the activity of life contrasted with the inactivity of death is also supported by the “fields of gazing grain” (11) that symbolize growth and gain. Meanwhile, the chill of the grave is compared to a house whose “roof was scarcely visible, / The cornice but a mound” (19-20). Imagery also plays a large role in the peace and serenity of the poem despite the topic. In her description of her pleasant ride, Dickinson depicts a quiet slow ride through the countryside with nothing to frighten her or make her uncomfortable. Her companions are gentle and courtly and she is expected to do nothing but sit and relax, having “put away / My labor, and my leisure too” (6-7). She floats through a timeless void that has no cares or concerns to weight her down. The children are depicted as they “strove, / At recess, in the ring” (9-10), raising the image of children struggling against one another within a confined space, perhaps fighting as in a boxing or wrestling match. They constantly struggle against the time that they’re given. The impression is that it is preferable to be peacefully sitting within the cool shade of the carriage than to be struggling in the sun with others. William Shakespeare addresses the problem of time head-on by immortalizing his subject within a poem so as to preserve her from the ravages of time in his 18th sonnet, often referred to by its first line, “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”. He begins the poem by illustrating the many ways in which his subject is fairer than any summer’s day he can think of. In describing how the “rough winds to shake the darling buds of May” (3), he illustrates how his love is never shaken by troubling concerns nor is she prone to fits of temper that would make others uncomfortable. Other comparisons include the thought that sometimes the sun is too hot while his love is never unpleasant to be around, never too intense. In these types of comparisons, in which she is not like early summer nor like late summer, Shakespeare indicates that his subject exists in a space of time that doesn’t exist, neither shaken by rough winds nor too hot for comfort nor too short for summer. Despite this, he recognizes the short term period in which most beauty exists. The summer is too short to contain his love, but as time passes, “every fair from fair sometime declines, / By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimmed” (7-8). As much as her beauty seems timeless to him, Shakespeare is acknowledging that time cannot be held back for anyone and will eventually leave its trace upon her beauty. The second half of the poem begins to describe her in terms that seem to place her beyond the realm of the living, “But thy eternal summer shall not fade / Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st” (9-10), because time seems incapable of touching her. This idea is negated in the next line though, “Nor shall Death brag thou wand’rest in his shade” (11), making the reader begin to wonder just how this individual is to escape the inevitable progression of time to which the rest of the human race is subject. The only way to preserve such a thing, Shakespeare reasons, is through poetry. “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, / So long lives this, and this gives life to thee” (13-14). As long as someone is capable of reading his lines, the beauty of his love will remain unforgotten and unspoiled. Although Faulkner painted the past as unchangeable and the present as unstoppable, the conflict presented between the two provided victories to either side. With Miss Emily’s triumph over Homer Barron, the reader is shown the victory of the past to overpower the present, bringing it to a halting standstill. However, the repeated allusions to decay of both the house and the individuals representing the past indicate that time cannot be stopped, it will continue to move forward bringing changes whether desired or not. Dickinson’s comparisons of death to the activity of living consistently illustrate the different perceptions of time, yet her opening lines, indicating that she “could not stop for Death” (1), recognize that this viewpoint is not necessarily discernable by the average living person caught up in the business of the present. Rather than forcing time to struggle against itself as Faulkner has done, Dickenson simply places two opposing perspectives in a side by side comparison that presents neither as evil, simply different. Shakespeare does not bother with trying to pit Time against itself, but instead works to find a way of defeating it. To accomplish this feat, he acknowledges the limitations of the mortal world and moves his subject instead into the world of the literary, preserving her memory, and her beauty, within the lines of his poetry so that she might live forever as the vision he has within his present. Thus, all three of these authors have worked with the same theme of time’s constant changes and the human desire that it should remain the same, yet all three have presented widely different viewpoints on the theme. References Dickinson, Emily. (date of publication). “Because I Could Not Stop for Death.” Book Title. Place of publication: Publisher name: pp. #. Faulker, William. (2004). “A Rose for Emily.” Anthology of American Literature – 8th Edition. Ed. McMichael, George, James S. Leonard, Bill Lyne, Anne-Marie Mallon and Verner D. Mitchell. Boston: Prentice Hall: 433-444. Shakespeare, William. (1969). “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day.” The Complete Pelican Shakespeare. Ed. Frye, Northrop. New York: Penguin Classics: 1456. Read More